Phase one of five · Free
Can I afford to buy, and if not, what has to change?
Plan answers that. Around fifteen questions, six minutes, and no credit check — and at the end, the price range a lender would typically work with, what it would cost you a month, and the specific things standing between you and the home you actually want.
Free, and it stays free. Plan and Decide are how we earn the right to charge for the phases after them.
Who it's for
Anyone who wants a straight answer before they start looking — first-time buyers, people buying with a partner or with friends, people buying to rent out, and people building rather than buying.
It is most useful if you are somewhere between “I think I might be able to do this” and “I have an offer in”. If you already have a mortgage pre-approval in hand, Plan will mostly tell you things you know — though the savings runway and the co-buying breakdown may still earn their place.
What it asks
Step 1
Who's buying, and why
Alone, with a partner, with friends, or as an investment — and whether you're buying somewhere to live, somewhere to rent out, or land to build on. It decides which questions you get asked and which rules apply.
Step 2
Where, and what kind of place
The area you're looking at, the minimum you'd accept, and anything that matters to you. If you're building instead, this section asks about the land and the house you have in mind.
Step 3
Your money
Income and how steady it is, what you've saved, what you put aside each month, and what you already owe. Gross figures, because that's what a lender assesses. No bank connection is required and no credit check is ever performed.
Step 4
Your range
A comfortable target and an estimated ceiling, what the monthly payment is made of, what your savings would actually be spent on, and which assistance programs you might qualify for.
You can leave and come back. Nothing is submitted until you say so, and every answer stays editable afterwards — changing one reworks the numbers rather than starting you over.
What you get
A comfortable target and a ceiling
Two numbers, not one. The target uses the more cautious of the two ratios lenders assess; the ceiling is where they commonly still approve. Neither is an approval, and we say so on the page rather than in a footnote.
What the monthly payment is made of
Principal and interest, property tax, insurance and mortgage insurance, broken out — plus what your savings would go to on the day: deposit, closing costs, the lender's reserve, and an emergency fund we insist on keeping back for you.
A readiness verdict, with its reasons
Ready, worth tracking, or not enough information yet. The third one is real: if a required answer is missing we show no range at all rather than a confident-looking number built on gaps.
A dated savings runway
What you'd have saved by each month against what you'd need — a requirement that rises, because the target price doesn't wait. Plus what another $250 a month would actually buy, and how a cheaper home, a later date or clearing a debt compare side by side.
At the end you can print the whole thing as a one-page summary to keep or to take to a conversation with someone.
If you're buying with someone
Plan supports shared journeys. Each person answers their own money questions, the household totals combine, and a breakdown shows who brings what.
It will also show you what different ownership splits would look like — by deposit, by income, or equal — with the reasoning behind each. Those are illustrations to argue over, not options to pick from: there is deliberately no “recommended” split, because how two people should own a house together depends on things no calculation can see. The legal side — how the deed is actually written — belongs to the Purchase phase, with someone qualified.
What it can't do
Worth reading before you start, rather than discovering later.
- The rate, property tax and insurance figures are national averages we maintain by hand. They are not a live market feed, every one is shown with the date it was set, and you can replace the tax and insurance with your own figures.
- We model a single 30-year fixed loan. Adjustable rates, 15-year terms, rate buydowns, second liens and seller concessions are all out of scope.
- Rental income is not counted toward what you can borrow, so an investment purchase will read conservatively.
- For a build, construction cost is estimated from a size and a finish level, not from a builder's quote — the answer is a wide band with the risks named, and it does not model construction-loan interest during the build.
- We are not a lender, a broker, or a licensed financial adviser, and nothing Plan produces is financial advice or an offer of credit.
What we do and don't touch
- No credit check is performed at any point. The credit question asks for a range, and it is optional.
- No bank connection is required. Every figure can be typed in.
- You can start as a guest. Answers stay in your browser until you create an account, and an account is only needed to save them and to run the calculation.
- On a shared journey, everyone can see the household totals and each person's contribution — that's the point of sharing one. Nobody outside the journey sees anything.
- Nothing here moves, holds or has access to your money. There is no product we route you into and no commission on the other side of any of it.
Ready to see where you stand?
Six minutes, no credit check, and you can stop whenever you like.
Homing Star is not a lender, a broker, or a licensed financial adviser. Everything Plan produces is an estimate for planning purposes, not a loan offer, a pre-approval, or financial advice. A lender will use your full credit file and documentation and may reach different numbers.